Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Receives Overweight Rating from Morgan Stanley

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley has reiterated an "overweight" rating on Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) with a price target of $300.00, suggesting a potential upside of 33.54% from its current price.
• Amazon recently reported a quarterly EPS of $1.68, exceeding analyst estimates, with a revenue of $167.70 billion—an increase of 13.3% compared to the previous year.
• Insider trading activity saw Jeffrey P. Bezos sell over 4 million shares valued at approximately $960.67 million, reducing his ownership stake by 0.47%.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)'s stock had its "overweight" rating reiterated by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $300.00 price objective on the e-commerce giant's stock. Morgan Stanley's price objective indicates a potential upside of 33.54% from the company's current price.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Amazon.com from $245.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $265.00 to $272.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $226.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $262.87.

Amazon.com Trading Up 1.4%

NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $224.66 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $220.60 and a 200 day moving average of $208.72. Amazon.com has a 52 week low of $161.38 and a 52 week high of $242.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.31.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.37. Amazon.com had a net margin of 10.54% and a return on equity of 23.84%. The company had revenue of $167.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.80 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.26 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Amazon.com will post 6.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 4,273,237 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.81, for a total transaction of $960,666,409.97. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 897,722,088 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $201,816,902,603.28. The trade was a 0.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold 25,096,253 shares of company stock worth $5,673,745,409 over the last ninety days. 9.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amazon.com

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AMZN. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Amazon.com in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Carderock Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Amazon.com in the second quarter worth about $27,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Amazon.com in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Perritt Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 72.7% in the fourth quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 190 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Cooksen Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Amazon.com in the first quarter worth about $36,000. 72.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Amazon.com Company Profile

Amazon.com, Inc engages in the retail sale of consumer products, advertising, and subscriptions service through online and physical stores in North America and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America, International, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). It also manufactures and sells electronic devices, including Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TVs, Echo, Ring, Blink, and eero; and develops and produces media content.

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